Costco Honey

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RC0032

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Anyone tried it? I have never done a mead mostly because of cost. But I was at Costco and 5lbs is $12. cheap!


clover-honey-deal.jpg
 
I usually use Costco honey. Our local one also sells a 6 lb package from the Sonoran Desert. Great stuff in my humble opinion
 
I made a mead using all ingredients from costco. Well, except for the DAP. Fermented it using the red star bread yeast that they sell in the big bricks.

It came in at a whopping 17% ABV.
 
I made a mead using all ingredients from costco. Well, except for the DAP. Fermented it using the red star bread yeast that they sell in the big bricks.

It came in at a whopping 17% ABV.
Is it good? ABV is one thing...bread yeast and generic honey is another.
 
My Costco doesn't have that... it has 6# bottles of Mrs. Crockett's Hill Country sonoran honey. THat is what I have been using.
 
Is it good? ABV is one thing...bread yeast and generic honey is another.


It was OK for an off-the-wall experiment. I would describe it as "average". I entered it in a recent competition and it scored mid-high 20's.

The ABV was a surprise for me. I piled on the honey anticipating a semi-sweet or sweet FG, but that bread yeast just chugged along and it fermented out to something really low, like 1.006 I think.
 
I started off with Costco honey, but found it is possibe to find a beekeeper that will sell better honey at the same price. But yes, you can make a good mead with Costco honey, especially if you add fruit (I highly recomend Costco's frozen strawberries while you are there).
 
From what I understand, especially from the Stickys:

You lose a lot of honey character in the primary fermentation. If you are planing on back sweetening then you can do your primary with a generic honey and then backsweeten with the more expensive honey and still get the great flavor and character of the more expensive honey. Worth trying I think.

Me, I usually do a 5 gal batch with 12 pounds of honey and let it ferment out and then stablized and backsweeten with 6 pounds. Ofcourse, My current source is about the prices you are seeing on the Costco honey. I know a few people but for regular alfalfa and wildflower it's about the same price. A little more for Orange Blossom. So I just stick with the same honey source.

I may just have to do a test with this though.

Batch 1: 12 pounds of cheap honey, backsweetening with my chosen honey type with 6 pounds.

Batch 2: 12 pounds of my chosen honey type, backsweetening with my chosen honey type.


Then seeing what the difference is. Has anyone done this?

Matrix
 
I have used Costco clover and red star in orange and raspberry meads. Turns out fantastic. Just like everything if you take care with temp and such , things will turn out fine
 
From what I understand, especially from the Stickys:

You lose a lot of honey character in the primary fermentation. If you are planing on back sweetening then you can do your primary with a generic honey and then backsweeten with the more expensive honey and still get the great flavor and character of the more expensive honey. Worth trying I think.

Me, I usually do a 5 gal batch with 12 pounds of honey and let it ferment out and then stablized and backsweeten with 6 pounds. Ofcourse, My current source is about the prices you are seeing on the Costco honey. I know a few people but for regular alfalfa and wildflower it's about the same price. A little more for Orange Blossom. So I just stick with the same honey source.

I may just have to do a test with this though.

Batch 1: 12 pounds of cheap honey, backsweetening with my chosen honey type with 6 pounds.

Batch 2: 12 pounds of my chosen honey type, backsweetening with my chosen honey type.


Then seeing what the difference is. Has anyone done this?

Matrix

This is a great experiment Matrix! I hope you start a thread about this and post the results. I think you should choose a competition or two and enter both meads so you can get some objective/blind comparison...
 
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